Willie Hobbs Moore

Willie Hobbs Moore
Born 1934
Died 1994 (aged 59)
Nationality American
Fields Physics, engineering
Institutions Ford Motor Company, Datamax
Alma mater University of Michigan (Ph.D., 1972)
Thesis A Vibrational Analysis of Secondary Chlorides
Doctoral advisor Samuel Krimm

Willie Hobbs Moore (1934–1994) was the first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in physics.[1]

Education and career

A native of Atlantic City, New Jersey, Moore moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1952 to attend the University of Michigan. She earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan in 1958 and her master's degree in 1961.[2] While working toward her doctoral degree, she also held positions at technology firms in Ann Arbor including KMS Industries and Datamax Corporation.[3] She also held engineering positions at Bendix Aerospace Systems, Barnes Engineering, and Sensor Dynamics, where she was responsible for the theoretical analysis.[4] Moore completed her thesis, A Vibrational Analysis of Secondary Chlorides, under the supervision of Samuel Krimm at the University of Michigan in 1972.[5] This work was applicable to important questions in the vibrational study of macromolecules.[1]

After receiving her doctorate, Moore worked at the University of Michigan as a research scientist until 1977, continuing spectroscopic work on proteins. In the five years following her dissertation, she published more than thirty papers with Krimm and collaborators.[5] She was hired by Ford Motor Company in 1977 as an assembly engineer.[6] Moore expanded Ford's use of Japanese engineering and manufacturing methods in the 1980s.[7][8] In 1991, Ebony magazine named Moore as one of their 100 "most promising black women in corporate America".[3]

Personal life

Moore was a tutor, a member of Links Inc., a member of the Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and the chairwoman of the Juanita D. Woods Scholarship Fund. She was married to Sidney L. Moore, who taught at the University of Michigan's Neuropsychiatric Institute, for thirty years. They had two children Dr. Dorian Moore, MD. and Christopher Hobbs Moore, RN. Willie also had three grandchildren Sydney Padgett, William Hobbs Moore, and C. Jackson Moore [3]

Moore died of cancer in 1994.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 "Professor Christine Aidala Receives Willie Hobbs Moore Award". News, Physics, University of Michigan. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  2. ↑ "Women in Science". The Star Garden. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Grantham, Russell (15 March 1994). "Scholar, tutor, pioneering black woman dies". Ann Arbor News. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  4. ↑ Willie Hobbs Moore, first African American Woman Physicist
  5. 1 2 Mickens, Ronald. "Abstract: V24.00004 : Willie Hobbs Moore (1934–1994): The First Female African American Physicist". APS March Meeting 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  6. ↑ "Engineering Their Way to the Top". Ebony. XL (2): 33. December 1984.
  7. 1 2 "Deaths". Toledo Blade. March 16, 1994. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
  8. ↑ "Pair of pioneers lauded". University of Michigan, The University Record Online. Retrieved 17 February 2015.
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